Author and editor keynote speaker for Krause lecture

March 25, 2013

Dr. Christof Teuscher, author and editor, will be the keynote speaker for the 2013 Ellis L. and Jennie Mac Krause Lecture in Science.

Teuscher, who initiated and organized the Turing Day, will talk about "The Life and Legacy of Alan Turing," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Alma McDonough Auditorium.

"During the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years, many events throughout the world have been organized to celebrate the centennial of Alan Turing," said Dr. Mark Miller, associate provost. "We are proud to have our Krause Lecture as one such event."

Turing was born in 1912 and he is considered by many people to be the father of the modern computer, as well as of computer science and artificial intelligence. Turing studied mathematics and logic and then worked at Bletchley Park (British version of the NSA) where he contributed to the efforts that eventually broke the German "ENIGMA" code, which was instrumental in the Allied victory during World War II.

After the war, Turing make significant contributions to the fields of logic, computer science and psychology. One such example is his now famous "Turing Test," in which he posed the question: "Would it be possible to program a computer sophisticated enough so that interaction with the computer was indistinguishable from interaction with a human?"

Teuscher's most recent book is called, "Alan Turing: Life and Legacy of a Great Thinker." Teuscher works at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

To learn more about Teuscher, visit (http://www.teuscher-.ch/christof/ext/). To learn more about Turing, visit www.turing.org-.uk/turing/.

The lecture series, which began in 2002, is supported by gifts from Dr. Richard M. Krause '47, the son of E.L. and Jennie Mae Krause. Dr. Krause served on the college's board of trustees for 22 years.